Professor’s Message Impacts Students in Africa
News
Harvey Alférez, PhD, professor and director of the Center for Innovation and Research in Computing (CIRC) in the School of Computing at Southern Adventist University, spoke at the Adventist University of Central Africa (AUCA) in Rwanda for the university’s colloquium this past August. Centered around artificial intelligence in higher education, some students traveled hundreds of miles from as far away as Kenya to hear Alférez speak. His insights even enabled one group of students to compellingly minister to their secular peers.
“I've been working in the field of artificial intelligence for more than 15 years,” Alférez shares. “It’s a tool used to create approaches to do specific tasks that typically require human intelligence.” AI’s ‘intelligence’ is based on how well it follows directives, and Alférez believes it has a wide range of uses. His presentations at AUCA’s colloquium focused on how AI can be used in education, medicine, research, and evangelism.
Invited to share the sermon at the AUCA church on Sabbath, Alférez had planned to speak about service, but felt impressed to change his topic to AI as it relates to Christianity. Alférez’s sermon highlighted three prominent worldviews: theism, which prioritizes God’s divine reality; humanism, which prioritizes human intellect above all else; and transhumanism, which uses technology to surpass human limitations. He compared how individuals believing each worldview might perceive current issues, such as the origin of the universe, morality, and the nature of humanity. Alférez cautioned against taking AI usage too far and developing transhumanist ideas.
After the sermon, interim AUCA university president Eustace Penniecook, MD, introduced Alférez to a group of 16 engineering and pharmacology students from Kenya who were in town to share their faith as Creationists in a secular context.
“They told me that my sermon had key information that they needed to defend their faith!” Alférez explains. “That’s when we recognized that the Holy Spirit conducted me to speak about transhumanism and the importance of having a strong biblical worldview. It was specifically for the benefit of these young people.”
The views and opinions of campus guests do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Southern Adventist University. An individual's or group's invitation to speak or present on campus should not be regarded as a university endorsement of their philosophies and beliefs.
